Powders for post-workout recovery

You should be proud of yourself. You did it, you moved about a bit, you pushed your body beyond boundaries it finds comfortable, you found a slice of time in your busy life to just work on your physical being. This is an admirable start to the year.

But you’re aching. Feels unfair, doesn’t it? Putting in a shift at pilates, the gym, running around the park, only to find yourself walking a bit funny up the stairs and generally aching. The pain is actually a good thing. It means your muscle fibres are ripping slightly, which sounds bad, but they come back bigger and stronger which is good. Remember hearing a bloke saying "no pain, no gain" to you? That’s sort of true, in this instance, except you don’t have to just settle with the aches being as bad as they are. Supplementation can help. From protein powders and amino acids which are designed to help muscles grow (mainly in strength, not mass) and repair, to anti-inflammatories and immune system boosters which help you to replenish after moving about a bit, there’s something to help everyone.

“Prevention is better than cure”, heard that before? The quote is credited to Dutch philosopher Desiderius Erasmus, who apparently coined the phrase in around 1500 AD. The idea is, if we stop something happening in the first place, we don’t have to deal with it at all. Like having a good amount of quality sleep (sensible), instead of staying up all night and trying to remedy it with caffeine (less sensible).

Anyway, the philosophy can be applied to moving about a lot too. Preventing fatigue and increasing energy levels (as well as internal heat) are super useful methods for ensuring we exercise without injury, and that we don’t feel as completely knackered afterwards. Plus, if we’re more energised we’re more likely to go harder in the work out. But taking (the recommended doses) of the following, and warming up properly, can help get you off to a flying start while meaning you need to recover less too.

Nutrition is a huge part of making sure our bodies feel good after exertion, and there’s more to it than just having a load of protein. Our body needs to make sure it’s getting all the nutrients it needs. A good way of helping that, alongside a balanced diet (which we should all aim for but is sort of difficult)

Just like beauty sleep is a real thing, our bodies do some miracles when we're catching Zzzs. A lot of the repair happens at night, so finding time to unwind and prioritise good quality sleep is key. These products can help you toward that.